It's now Wednesday afternoon and we are back on board Zephyr getting set to take off tomorrow for Antigua, about 42 miles north of here. Winds are in our favor with 12-15 knot winds from the southeast so it will push us along just fine if that is what we actually get. A good 15 boats left today for parts north as well as south. Antigua is one of the "happening" place to go to here in the Caribbean. We will find out why tomorrow.
We wandered in town hitting the ATM since the last place we tried wouldn't let us get any money and we needed some just to checkout. Euros are the currency of choice but they will take US money at I'm sure a horrible exchange rate. We stopped at Spar, the local grocery store. It's actually a world wide chain we have been in before(South Africa). Down there, it was a very nice store. Up here, it's more like your neighborhood convenience store. At least we got some more veggies. It's always hit or miss in the countries we've visited so if you see it, grab it because it probably won't be there the next time you look.
As of now, all we need to do is pull up the anchor, put the wind vane on our Hydrovane(great piece of equipment), the water prop for our DuoGen, put the halyard on the mainsail and we should be ready to go.

We made it to Antigua after a pretty fast trip. We pulled up the anchor and were out of the anchorage by 0620 and on our way, along with at least a dozen other boats, some of which left before us and some that left after us. It was like a parade except that it was going both ways. About half way to Antigua, we encountered boats heading our way for Guadalupe. They had left about the same time we did, but were going the opposite direction. We started out slow with light winds so the motor was put to use. Eventually we had enough wind but decided to play it safe since the forecast was for winds of 15 to 20 knots. We put in a reef in the mainsail and didn't pull out the genoa sail all the way. This left us with better control when and if the winds came. We saw storms building over the mountains on Guadalupe so we played it safe should they follow us which they did. The winds and the storms came about a third of the way north with winds first hitting 20 knots as the storm passed over us. The second pushed the winds into the high 20s and it passed over leaving a good bit of rain with it. Once past, the skies opened up and it was a very nice sunny day with the winds continuing in the mid teens making for a delightful sail. We were hitting into the high 6 knot to 7 knots and topped it with a high speed of 9.9 knots according to our chart plotters GPS and that was under a reefed main and not the full genoa sail. We are hitting speeds we've never hit before.

We arrived and entered English Harbor on the south side of the island but found it just too crowded for our taste in anchoring so we headed west about mile to Falmouth Harbor with is a very nice large bay with plenty of space for dropping the hook. By now, it was approaching 1400 and all we'd had all day was a couple of granola bars so once the hook was down and set, we had a nice lunch of a tuna sandwich. Oh, it was nice to have some food in the stomach. We tidied up Zephyr stowing all the extra equipment we use on passage--Hydrovane wind vane, DuoGen water prop for making power, flaked and tied down the mainsail and covered it(got to protect our new sail) and cleaned up the cockpit a bit. While we were just underway for about 7 hours, things find their way into the cockpit and with the rain, well something just got thrown below during the storms all of which need picking up and cleaning up.

Once we dropped the anchor and got settled, who did we see nearby but Challenger 93, the boat that almost hit us a few days ago. When they left Pigeon Island, they had headed south but somehow found their was north. Now on a mooring buoy close by. Maybe they had to cut their anchor loose during the blow. Guess we will never know.

Tomorrow, I'll be going ashore to get us checked in. Only the captain goes ashore for Immigration and Customs. "Crew" stays on board. We don't expect to be here in Falmouth Harbor past tomorrow as there is a big blow due in on Saturday and we what to try out another harbor. Antigua charges for anchoring here in Falmouth as well as for trash and a cruising permit. I'll find out how much that's going to cost tomorrow.

It's now Friday evening and we are not only all checked in with Immigration, Customs as well as the Port Authority. The Port Authority was the people that collect our monies. The fees for Trash, cruising fees and some other fee amounted to $104EC or about $38US. I made sure to get there early, about 0830 so once processed, we could move out of Falmouth Harbor to a more secluded place as there is supposed to be a storm coming with some rain and decent winds. We want to make sure we have good holding on the bottom for our anchor. On my way back to the dinghy, I asked at the local Digicell top up place(a gas station) about getting a new simm card and was told that none were sold locally and I'd need to go to St.John Harbor clear across the island. "Just take one of the busses, It only takes about a hour each way"was what I was told. With no time for that, I asked around the docks and was directed to "Anchor Concierge & Super Yacht Services Ltd." OK, we are not a "super yacht" but Terry, one of their agents could not have been nicer. His assistant took a look in their cabinets and came up with a simm card saving us a lot of time and aggravations. Final charge--$25US for calls and a gig of internet. Just what we needed. I can't recommend Terry and Anchor Concierge & Super Yacht Services Ltd enough. Great company and he told us that if we needed anything, to just stop by and he would see what he could do for us.

Terry's company says "Super Yacht" and that's exactly what is in this harbor. Along with boats like ours--just 45 feet, are big, huge, yachts at over 165 feet and bigger with crews all decked out in their boats uniforms. They pay in a day more than we pay in a month but hey, if you got it why not spend it. I can't imaging what these people do that allows them to have such nice toys but they sure must do it well.

Once back at Zephyr, we pulled Puff back on board and headed out for Carlisle Harbor, about 5 miles west of Falmouth. I'd talked to Terry about our plans and he recommended it as a good place to stay especially if a store might be coming. Heck, any place along the west coast of the island is good for protection when east or southeast winds are coming. The forecast is for rain for the next four days and winds in the 20+ knot range. We had the anchor up and we were on our way before 1100 and in Carlisle about an hour later. Two other boats in the bay(both of which left later) and we were joined by another big catamaran later in the afternoon. By sundown, everyone but us and the catamaran had left the harbor. No clue why other than it gets a bit rollie from time to time. After Prickly Bay and Fort de France, this place is a piece of cake. I put in a request for Chicken Curry for lunch and that's exactly what I got. Tracy's curry is just great and it's been a while since I've had it. Went down really smooth and there is enough left for one more meal!!

Once we finished lunch, I put on my suit, fins and mask and went in the water to check the anchor. It had bit in hard when it hit the bottom and I think we got lucky and it hit a patch of sand but I wanted to check. Sure enough, it was nicely buried in a sandy patch surrounded by lots of grass. We hit it just right. We aren't going anywhere and I can turn off the chart plotter and anchor drag alarm. Tracy joined me later and we swam for shore to see if there where any shells available. When Tracy swam in, she saw a conch shell on the bottom. A nice big one. We found it later when we swam back but it was still occupied so we put it right back down on the bottom. One of our hard and fast rules is that we don't kill any animal that just happens to take up residence in a shell not matter how much we want it. We don't fish any more as what we catch will be far more than the two of us could possibly eat and while we do have a nice freezer on board, we just don't feel its right to kill a nice big fish so we can eat just a small part of it. If we traveled in groups, we could share but since we don't, we don't' fish. Haven't since shortly after we left Mexico in 2011. We've got a beautiful deep water reel but it's never been used and probably won't ever get used.

We had a small rain store a few minutes ago and a little build up of wind but so far that's it for now. The rest of the day passed just fine with a few more showers and a bit of wind but not bad. Today, Saturday, we had a boat or two join us in the Carlisle Bay but most left during the middle of the afternoon. One mega yacht came by with a chase boat in his wake and after looking around left also heading west. It's the "in" thing now for the big mega yachts to have a "chase" boat tagging along with them. I guess they lag behind till there get some where and then they go in and scope out the anchorage. We saw one leave yesterday headed for Dominica with the extra boat in it's wake. We've seen bigger yachts come across the ocean with a spare yacht along with them carrying all their play things since they don't have enough space on board the big yacht. Can't envision that kind of wealth. We spent most of the morning playing Mexican Train Dominos with just the two of us. Tracy blew me out of the water. We stopped for lunch and then finished the game. Once we were done with that, we put on our swim gear and headed out for shore again looking for what ever we saw. Tracy saw two big Manta Rays as they glide past here. I was far behind her and missed them. We checked on our anchor again since we were in the water and it's still dug in just fine with no movement at all since it dug in yesterday afternoon. Again, I'll say we love our Rocna Anchor, all 88 pounds of it. Sure lets us sleep better at night.

Once back on board, Tracy came down with what she things is "sea sickness" or at least the symptoms for it. Upset stomach as well as a really bad head ache. She rested the rest of the afternoon and had a couple pieces of toast for her dinner. Now we'll see if she can keep them down. I had left over curry and rice from yesterdays lunch. Even better the second day. Tomorrow, if Tracy is better, we'll be taking off for either Five Island Bay or Deep Water Bay, both on the west side of Antigua. If she's not up to it or if the weather gets really bad, we can just stay here. No big deal though we want to see more of the island before we take off.

This is getting a bit long so I'll close it out and start another post. Once I get internet, I should be able to get them both posted. Hopefully tomorrow when we get to shore.